Bellarmine on Psalm 109 : Verse 2

Verse 2

Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. 

These words form part of the first verse, according to the Hebrews, following the divisions of the Rabbis; but the Septuagint translators, who preceded all the Rabbis, concluded this ought to be the beginning of a new verse. The prophet signifies by these words that Christ’s kingdom is never to end, nor is there any danger that it will be overturned by its enemies, since God has decided to subject them gradually to Himself, so that Christ may reign peacefully thereafter for ever. The word until does not mean that Christ’s enthronement will not extend any further once all His enemies have been subdued, but it signifies that Christ’s kingdom will be spread more and more, until not a single enemy will remain who does not bend the knee before Him, as though He were to say: Continue ruling with me and do not cease to spread the kingdom until all enemies are subdued. Indeed, this extension is being fulfilled daily, while some are converted to the faith and obedience, and willingly subject themselves beneath Christ’s feet, so that He may rest on them as though on a footstool and, their exile over, they may hasten on to the heavenly home where they will rest happily in God; others are either perverted or persist in perverseness, and finally through death they are taken to judgement and damned, they are thrust down into hell, where they are trampled in eternity under Christ’s feet. At the last day, the extension (of the kingdom) will be completed, and then every knee shall bow before Christ, in heaven, on earth and in hell. So why is it the Father who says: “Until I make”? Does not the Son also make His enemies His footstool?  Everything done by the Father is also done by the Son, as He Himself asserts; but this action is attributed to the Father because through it the obedience of the Son is rewarded, as we heard in the Apostle’s words a little earlier: “For which cause God also hath exalted him.”[1] Now every action which pertains to power is wont to be attributed to the Father, even though it is held in common with the Son, since it is communicated by the Father to the Son, not by the Son to the Father, and to the Son, as he is God, it is communicated by generation; to the same Son, insofar as He is man, it is communicated through the grace of the hypostatic union.  The way the Son co-operates with the father in this action of subduing their common enemies is set out in the next verse.

[1] For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen : [Philip. ii. 9] 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.